Many modern electronic memory storage systems are constructed using an intelligent controller connected to a memory medium. These intelligent memory storage systems often support a number of different physical connections as well as use a variety of function command sets. For the memory storage devices under consideration, a subset of the supported physical interfaces and function command sets often conform to an international standard thus allowing these memory storage systems to be used with low cost personal computers as standard archive file storage drives.
In many cases, memory storage systems are connected to the CPU of the personal computer through an electronic bridge device. An example of such personal computer component is called a USB reader/writer which acts as an electronic bridge between a computer system with USB ports and a memory storage device such as the ones under consideration.
Unfortunately in many cases, the published international standard for the memory storage device is only a subset of the full capabilities of an actual device. Thus, even though the memory storage device can be accessed by a standard computer component such as a USB reader/writer, many of its functional capabilities are often inaccessible due to lack of either the required physical or software interface available in the computer component.
In order to be able to address the many capabilities of modern memory storage devices without the requirement of expensive custom interfaces available in dedicated memory testers, what is required is a new means by which a standard computer can access these devices both as standard archive file devices as well as by using a second interface that allows access to the unique capabilities of these memory devices.